Return to Dark Earth (31 page)

“Shit,” Marcus bit out. Then he went
silent.

She didn’t know if he was thinking or
fighting. She pictured his rugged, scarred face creased in thought
as he formulated a plan.

Then his deep, rasping voice was back.
“Elle, we need an escape route and an evac now. Shaw’s been hit in
the leg, Cruz is carrying him. We can’t engage more raptors.”

She tapped the screen rapidly, pulling up
drone images and archived maps.
Escape route, escape route
.
Her mind clicked through the options. She knew Shaw was taller and
heavier than Cruz, but the armor they wore had slim-line
exoskeletons built into them allowing the soldiers to lift heavier
loads and run faster and longer than normal. She tapped the screen
again.
Come on
. She needed somewhere safe for a Hawk
quadcopter to set down and pick them up.

“Elle? We need it now!”

Just then her comp beeped. She looked at the
image and saw a hazy patch of red appear in the broken shell of a
nearby building. The heat sensor had detected something else down
there. Something big.

Right next to the team.

She touched her ear. “Rex! Marcus, a rex has
just woken up in the building beside you.”

“Fuck! Get us out of here. Now.”

Oh, God.
Elle swallowed back bile.
Images of rexes, with their huge, dinosaur-like bodies and mouths
full of teeth, flashed in her head.

More laser fire ripped through her earpiece
and she heard the wild roar of the awakening beast.

Block it out
. She focused on the
screen. Marcus needed her. The team needed her.

“Run past the rex.” One hand curled into a
tight fist, her nails cutting into her skin. “Go through its hiding
place.”

“Through its nest?” Marcus’ voice was
incredulous. “You know how territorial they are.”

“It’s the best way out. On the other side
you’ll find a railway tunnel. Head south along it about eight
hundred meters, and you’ll find an emergency exit ladder that you
can take to the surface. I’ll have a Hawk pick you up there.”

A harsh expulsion of breath. “Okay, Elle.
You’ve gotten us out of too many tight spots for me to doubt you
now.”

His words had heat creeping into her cheeks.
His praise…it left her giddy. In her life BAI—before alien
invasion—no one had valued her opinions. Her father, her mother,
even her almost-fiancé, they’d all thought her nothing more than a
pretty ornament. Hell, she
had
been a silly, pretty party
girl.

And because she’d been inept, her parents
were dead. Elle swallowed. A year had passed since that horrible
night during the first wave of the alien attack, when their giant
ships had appeared in the skies. Her parents had died that night,
along with most of the world.

“Hell Squad, ready to go to hell?” Marcus
called out.

“Hell, yeah!” the team responded. “The devil
needs an ass-kicking!”

“Woo-hoo!” Another voice blasted through her
headset, pulling her from the past. “Ellie, baby, this dirty
alien’s nest stinks like Cruz’s socks. You should be here.”

A smile tugged at Elle’s lips. Shaw Baird
always knew how to ease the tension of a life-or-death
situation.

“Oh, yeah, Hell Squad gets the best
missions,” Shaw added.

Elle watched the screen, her smile slipping.
Everyone called Squad Six the Hell Squad. She was never quite sure
if it was because they were hellions, or because they got sent into
hell to do the toughest, dirtiest missions.

There was no doubt they were a bunch of
rebels. Marcus had a rep for not following orders. Just the
previous week, he’d led the squad in to destroy a raptor outpost
but had detoured to rescue survivors huddled in an abandoned
hospital that was under attack. At the debrief, the general’s
yelling had echoed through the entire base. Marcus, as always, had
been silent.

“Shut up, Shaw, you moron.” The deep female
voice carried an edge.

Elle had decided there were two words that
best described the only female soldier on Hell Squad—loner and
tough. Claudia Frost was everything Elle wasn’t. Elle cleared her
throat. “Just get yourselves back to base.”

As she listened to the team fight their way
through the rex nest, she tapped in the command for one of the Hawk
quadcopters to pick them up.

The line crackled. “Okay, Elle, we’re
through. Heading to the evac point.”

Marcus’ deep voice flowed over her and the
tense muscles in her shoulders relaxed a fraction. They’d be back
soon. They were okay. He was okay.

She pressed a finger to the blue dot leading
the team. “The bird’s en route, Marcus.”

“Thanks. See you soon.”

She watched on the screen as the large,
black shadow of the Hawk hovered above the ground and the team
boarded. The rex was headed in their direction, but they were
already in the air.

Elle stood and ran her hands down her
trousers. She shot a wry smile at the camouflage fabric. It felt
like a dream to think that she’d ever owned a very expensive,
designer wardrobe. And heels—God, how long had it been since she’d
worn heels? These days, fatigues were all that hung in her closet.
Well-worn ones, at that.

As she headed through the tunnels of the
underground base toward the landing pads, she forced herself not to
run. She’d see him—them—soon enough. She rounded a corner and
almost collided with someone.

“General. Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I
was going.”

“No problem, Elle.” General Adam Holmes had
a military-straight bearing he’d developed in the United Coalition
Army and a head of dark hair with a brush of distinguished gray at
his temples. He was classically handsome, and his eyes were a
piercing blue. He was the top man in this last little outpost of
humanity. “Squad Six on their way back?”

“Yes, sir.” They fell into step.

“And they secured the map?”

God, Elle had almost forgotten about the
map. “Ah, yes. They got images of it just before they came under
attack by raptors.”

“Well, let’s go welcome them home. That map
might just be the key to the fate of mankind.”

They stepped into the landing areas. Staff
in various military uniforms and civilian clothes raced around.
After the raptors had attacked, bringing all manner of vicious
creatures with them to take over the Earth, what was left of
mankind had banded together.

Whoever had survived now lived here in an
underground base in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney, or in
the other, similar outposts scattered across the planet. All arms
of the United Coalition’s military had been decimated. In the early
days, many of the surviving soldiers had fought amongst themselves,
trying to work out who outranked whom. But it didn’t take long
before General Holmes had unified everyone against the aliens. Most
squads were a mix of ranks and experience, but the teams eventually
worked themselves out. Most didn’t even bother with titles and rank
anymore.

Sirens blared, followed by the clang of
metal. Huge doors overhead retracted into the roof.

A Hawk filled the opening, with its sleek
gray body and four spinning rotors. It was near-silent, running on
a small thermonuclear engine. It turned slowly as it descended to
the landing pad.

Her team was home.

She threaded her hands together, her heart
beating a little faster.

Marcus was home.

***

Marcus Steele wanted a shower and a beer.

Hot, sweaty and covered in raptor blood, he
leaped down from the Hawk and waved at his team to follow. He kept
a sharp eye on the medical team who raced out to tend to Shaw. Dr.
Emerson Green was leading them, her white lab coat snapping around
her curvy body. The blonde doctor caught his gaze and tossed him a
salute.

Shaw was cursing and waving them off, but
one look from Marcus and the lanky Australian sniper shut his
mouth.

Marcus swung his laser carbine over his
shoulder and scraped a hand down his face. Man, he’d kill for a hot
shower. Of course, he’d have to settle for a cold one since they
only allowed hot water for two hours in the morning in order to
conserve energy. But maybe after that beer he’d feel human
again.

“Well done, Squad Six.” Holmes stepped
forward. “Steele, I hear you got images of the map.”

Holmes might piss Marcus off sometimes, but
at least the guy always got straight to the point. He was a general
to the bone and always looked spit and polish. Everything about him
screamed money and a fancy education, so not surprisingly, he
tended to rub the troops the wrong way.

Marcus pulled the small, clear comp chip
from his pocket. “We got it.”

Then he spotted her.

Shit.
It was always a small kick in
his chest. His gaze traveled up Elle Milton’s slim figure, coming
to rest on a face he could stare at all day. She wasn’t very tall,
but that didn’t matter. Something about her high cheekbones,
pale-blue eyes, full lips, and rain of chocolate-brown hair…it all
worked for him. Perfectly. She was beautiful, kind, and far too
good to be stuck in this crappy underground maze of tunnels,
dressed in hand-me-down fatigues.

She raised a slim hand. Marcus shot her a
small nod.

“Hey, Ellie-girl. Gonna give me a kiss?”

Shaw passed on an iono-stretcher hovering
off the ground and Marcus gritted his teeth. The tall, blond sniper
with his lazy charm and Aussie drawl was popular with the ladies.
Shaw flashed his killer smile at Elle.

She smiled back, her blue eyes twinkling and
Marcus’ gut cramped.

Then she put one hand on her hip and gave
the sniper a head-to-toe look. She shook her head. “I think you get
enough kisses.”

Marcus released the breath he didn’t realize
he was holding.

“See you later, Sarge.” Zeke Jackson slapped
Marcus on the back and strolled past. His usually-silent twin,
Gabe, was beside him. The twins, both former Coalition Army Special
Forces soldiers, were deadly in the field. Marcus was damned happy
to have them on his squad.

“Howdy, Princess.” Claudia shot Elle a smirk
as she passed.

Elle rolled her eyes. “Claudia.”

Cruz, Marcus’ second-in-command and best
friend from their days as Coalition Marines, stepped up beside
Marcus and crossed his arms over his chest. He’d already pulled
some of his lightweight body armor off, and the ink on his arms was
on display.

The general nodded at Cruz before looking
back at Marcus. “We need Shaw back up and running ASAP. If the
raptor prisoner we interrogated is correct, that map shows one of
the main raptor communications hubs.” There was a blaze of
excitement in the usually-stoic general’s voice. “It links all
their operations together.”

Yeah, Marcus knew it was big. Destroy the
hub, send the raptor operations into disarray.

The general continued. “As soon as the tech
team can break the encryption on the chip and give us a location
for the raptor comms hub—” his piercing gaze leveled on Marcus “—I
want your team back out there to plant the bomb.”

Marcus nodded. He knew if they destroyed the
raptors’ communications it gave humanity a fighting chance. A
chance they desperately needed.

He traded a look with Cruz. Looked like they
were going out to wade through raptor gore again sooner than
anticipated.

Man, he really wanted that beer.

Then Marcus’ gaze landed on Elle again. He
didn’t keep going out there for himself, or Holmes. He went so
people like Elle and the other civilian survivors had a chance. A
chance to do more than simply survive.

“Shaw’s wound is minor. Doc Emerson should
have him good as new in an hour or so.” Since the advent of the
nano-meds, simple wounds could be healed in hours, rather than days
and weeks. They carried a dose of the microscopic medical machines
on every mission, but only for dire emergencies. The nano-meds had
to be administered and monitored by professionals or they were just
as likely to kill you from the inside than heal you.

General Holmes nodded. “Good.”

Elle cleared her throat. “There’s no telling
how long it will take to break the encryption. I’ve been working
with the tech team and even if they break it, we may not be able to
translate it all. We’re getting better at learning the raptor
language but there are still huge amounts of it we don’t yet
understand.”

Marcus’ jaw tightened. There was always
something. He knew Noah Kim—their resident genius computer
specialist—and his geeks were good, but if they couldn’t read the
damn raptor language…

Holmes turned. “Steele, let your team have
some downtime and be ready the minute Noah has anything.”

“Yes, sir.” As the general left, Marcus
turned to Cruz. “Go get yourself a beer, Ramos.”

“Don’t need to tell me more than once,
amigo
. I would kill for some of my dad’s tamales to go with
it.” Something sad flashed across a face all the women in the base
mooned over, then he grimaced and a bone-deep weariness colored his
words. “Need to wash the raptor off me, first.” He tossed Marcus a
casual salute, Elle a smile, and strode out.

Marcus frowned after his friend and absently
started loosening his body armor.

Elle moved up beside him. “I can take the
comp chip to Noah.”

“Sure.” He handed it to her. When her
fingers brushed his he felt the warmth all the way through him.
Hell, he had it bad. Thankfully, he still had his armor on or she’d
see his cock tenting his pants.

“I’ll come find you as soon as we have
something.” She glanced up at him. Smiled. “Are you going to rec
night tonight? I hear Cruz might even play guitar for us.”

The Friday-night gathering was a chance for
everyone to blow off a bit of steam and drink too much homebrewed
beer. And Cruz had an unreal talent with a guitar, although lately
Marcus hadn’t seen the man play too much.